Wednesday, January 15, 2014

What Good Are Artist Awards?

 Another excellent post from Alyson Stanfield.

This is a very interesting discussion in the comments. As a recent graduate I am looking for ways to show my work and for me juried exhibits are a way to begin. However I am heeding some advice from the commentators that there are more effective ways to present work as in social media. 

What do you think?

What Good Are Artist Awards?

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Transitions Do they ever end?

I completed my course work for my BFA degree December 2011 and had to wait for the spring of 2012 for the convocation ceremony. It seems like a long time ago. I was excited to focus on starting my art practice. And indeed, since graduating, I am slowly establishing myself  through exhibiting in group shows at various galleries in the greater Vancouver area. I am honoured to be included in the Discovery exhibit at the Seymour Gallery and excited about the opening reception this Sunday. It's always satisfying to be accepted into a juried show, a validation that I'm where I'm suppose to be.

However, I am ready to reconnect with my passion of helping others to achieve their goals. I have been involved with what is often referred to as the "helping profession" and love the experience in being a part of someone's learning and to be able to assist with mastery over a new experience from a handicap child learning to dress, parents learning how to talk to their children in a new way and being pleasantly surprised at the results to children growing their very first garden. I want to bring my two passions together and use art as a way for expression and learning about the self and others. In the scheme of things it may seem small compared to discovering a cure for some disease but sometimes more often than not it's the small things that can have a great impact in someone's life at the right moment.

I thought this would be an easy transition to make since I have many years experience. However I have not worked in the field for a few years. My focus has been on my education and community involvement at the university. Since graduating making art has been my work. This makes it difficult to get current references to successfully apply for employment. It never occurred to me that it would be difficult but it is so. It is like being a youth fresh out of school with no work experience except I have 30 years work experience. I just can't connect with people who are qualified to vouch for me because they did not supervise me in a work capacity. Those who did supervise me was before I went back to school and are no longer working in those positions. I understand a hiring committee's position. They have a very specific requirement to verify that I am who I say I am. It's just a very strange place to be.

In any case, over the holidays, I have been preparing lesson plans for children's drawing and painting classes and am very thankful to all the art teachers especially Mr. E.  He visited my blog and made a comment on my post Seize the Limitations and shared it with his followers. This small act had a big impact for me because it connected me with others who have the same passion for teaching. I was able to benefit from their generosity and adapt projects for a community setting. 

As the transition continues I am looking forward to the time I will connect my two passions creating art and helping others to do it too.

Happy New Year everyone.